What Do Birds Do During a Total Eclipse?

Approximately every 18 months a total solar eclipse is visible somewhere on the surface of the Earth. During previous total solar eclipses, numerous observers have reported interesting animal behavior—especially describing birds. With the advent of citizen science and projects like eBird, we now have the opportunity to examine bird behaviors as reported by a large number of observers almost immediately and at a much grander scale. The amazing accounts below of birding during Monday’s total solar eclipse are all from eBird checklists submitted by birders like you—please submit your eclipse sightings if you haven’t already!

We looked at 7,800 checklists submitted to eBird.org on August 21, 2017 and focused on 1,350 checklists submitted from the time of maximum eclipse. Below, we highlight interesting observations from the path of totality (black circular icons with white borders, representing a total eclipse) and outside of it (partial eclipse icons of varying magnitude).

Te read more about this story kindly visit the original source and click on each icon and the link to each checklist to read how eBirders experienced and documented the event.